The Jamestown Colony

The book was well received by school children visiting Jamestown and Williamsburg on the 400th anniversary of the landing by the British colonists in Virginia.

"The Jamestown Colony" was the third attempt by the English to establish a colony in the New World. In 1606 three small ships arrived at the mouth of a broad river that emptied in Chesapeake Bay. The colonists named it the James River in honor of the King who had granted their charger. The area was settled by nearly 10,000 Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy, not all of whom were friendly, which required the colonists to find a secure location to build a fort and harbor their ships. The site was called Jamestown and Gail Sakurai tells the story of the first permanent English colony in the Americas, although by the end of the century it was abandoned.Sakurai goes well beyond what young readers are going to find in their American History textbooks. We learn about why more than half the settlers died by the end of their first summer, the true story of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, the arrival of the first women at Jamestown, the brutal winter known as the "Starving Time," and the arrival of the new governor, Lord Delaware, who stopped the settlers from abandoning the colony in 1610. Ironically, we learn that this famous colony was an economic failure, which explains why the last part of the book talks more about the impact Pocahontas made on her visit to England than what was happening at Jamestown, where slavery was introduced but massacres, diseases, fires and other disasters decimated the colony, which was burned to the ground following an unsuccessful revolt. Thousands of new settlers came to Virginia, but not to Jamestown, which was replaced as capital of the colony by Williamsburg. Teachers and students alike will find this story interesting and ample proof that colonizing America was not an easy task. Other Cornerstones of Freedom titles on related subjects include "The Pilgrims," "Williamsburg," and "African-Americans in the Thirteen Colonies." These books remain an excellent first place to look for detailed information about various facets of American History.

The story, The Jamestown Colony, is about the first colony in the United States. It describes why the settlers left and what difficulties they arrived at. A smart buy for anyone wishing to learn more about our countries early colonial times.